Jack Daniel's Racing pushing on at Pukekohe

Jack Daniel's Racing have a solid base to work from at Pukekohe Park Raceway, with Todd and Rick Kelly tuning their Nissan Alimtas on the opening day of racing at the fourth event of the 2014 V8 Supercars Championship.

Todd Kelly had a consistent day, qualifying 15th, before coming home in 16th place in the opening 100km race, with qualifying pace proving to be vital on the fast 2.91km long layout.

Rick Kelly meanwhile started the day strongly, with the fourth best time in opening practice, before his day unravelled in qualifying.

An off track excursion early in the session brought out a red flag, which forced the younger brother to start from the rear of grid, from which he rebounded to finish 20th.

Saturday's on track action commences with a further 30 minute practice session, before a pair of 10 minute long qualifiers, and twin 100km races.

Todd Kelly - #7 Jack Daniel's Racing Nissan Altima:
Qualifying Race 10- 15th
Race 10- 16th

"It's pretty tough to pass, there were places where I had a quicker car than those in front, but it was really in all of the high speed stuff which didn't allow me many chances to overtake," said Todd Kelly.

"The weaknesses today are in the places where you can pass or be passed, so there is a bit of work to do as a race car.

"It's really all about qualifying, it's quite hard to pass out there, we had a pretty good qualifying car but didn't get the most out of it.

"The best lap we had someone had speared off in front of me and covered the track in dirt, I felt we were a tenth and a half better than where we qualified.

"So if we can work on that and move up a bit for the start of the race, it's not looking too bad."

Rick Kelly - #15 Jack Daniel's Racing Nissan Altima:
Qualifying Race 10- 25th
Race 10- 20th

"The guys today provided me with a fantastic car, it was strong in practice and would have been great in qualifying and I made an error," said Rick Kelly.

"I bounced off a kerb at turn one, and the tyres were not quite up to pressure on that lap, it pushed me wide on a couple of corners, and I couldn't get it back before the tyre wall.

"It was my fault on that one 100 percent, it put us back in the back of the pack, and we managed to climb a few positions up.

"With the car in the race, if I qualified better, I'm sure I could have maintained it.

"Tomorrow's task is to do a really good job in qualifying in both sessions, and tweak the race car a little bit to give some more pace off the two slow corners.

"I had a good battle out there with a few guys, and we came away with a clean car. I just apologise to the team, because they gave me a great car."

Jack Daniel's Racing